Why was ISO/IEC 20000 created?

ISO/IEC 20000-1 was the first international standard for service management and since its launch in 2005 has become one of the most achieved certifications for service providers. The ISO/IEC 20000 series consists of many parts, under the general title information technology - service management.

While its stronghold is in IT, ISO/IEC 20000 is used across many other industries to provide a consistent approach to service management and allow organizations to demonstrate that their service management system has been assessed and certified to the standard.

In fact, ISO/IEC 20000 was devised from BS 15000 – a standard created by the British Standards organization in response to industry and the UK government needing a qualified way to assess service management in its tendering processes.

What’s the difference between ISO/IEC 20000 and ITIL, and how do they work together?

Put simply, ISO/IEC 20000 specifies “what” needs to be done and ITIL provides guidance on “how” to do service management activities.

ISO/IEC 20000 contains the requirements companies need to meet for compliance and to show competency, whereas ITIL provides a body of detail, knowledge and information.

You can think of the relationship between the two like a pyramid with ISO/IEC 20000 at the top and frameworks such as ITIL and COBIT supporting underneath.

Across the community, there is a desire to maintain the alignment between ISO/IEC 20000 and ITIL. How organizations use both together however does vary and was something explored in detail in a market survey called Using ITIL® and ISO/IEC 20000 together: a global view. This report showed how the community is changing in response to, amongst other things, globalization.

What is ISO/IEC 20000 Part 11 and why was it developed?

Recognizing the widespread use of ISO/IEC 20000 and ITIL amongst practitioners, Part 11 is a technical report that provides guidance on how the two can be used together. It’s very much a market driven development.

In Part 11, users can see the correlation between ISO/IEC 20000 and ITIL, and where to look in ITIL for more information.

What are the benefits of Part 11 for the service management community?

Service providers can refer to Part 11 as a cross-reference between ISO/IEC 20000-1 and ITIL to help them plan and implement service management systems. Part 11 helps practitioners understand the correlation between ISO/IEC 20000 and ITIL and use it in a practical way. It’s like a map showing you the easiest way from A to B.

By making the correlation more direct, it helps the community to be more effective and efficient, and in turn deliver greater value to their organizations, whether establishing or improving a service.

What’s next for ISO/IEC 20000?

The future’s very bright for the ISO/IEC 20000 series and it is continuing to evolve as the market develops.

The next edition will adopt the new ISO management system standard text that makes it easier for organizations integrate all their management systems by sharing many of the same general requirements and the same structure. For example this can be used to more easily integrate their ISO/IEC 20000 service management system with their ISO/IEC 27001 information security management system.

It will also incorporate improvements like additional focus on service governance and value management, as well as updated requirements to more comprehensively handle service models such as public cloud services or SIAM (Service Integration and Management). Ultimately, it’s about future-proofing and making sure ISO/IEC 20000 is optimized for today’s world.